SXSW 2019 served up 3,000 pounds of cheese and now I don’t feel so good

As I walk down the third floor hall of the JW Marriott in Austin, Texas, the smell of cheese gets stronger. This moment has been a year in the making. I’m at SXSW and I’m about to make a return visit to Wisconsin Cheese’s Cheeselandia, a veritable cheese-stravaganza that’s inevitably the thing I think about while I’m staring into the middle distance at my desk on any given Wednesday. My objective: eat an unseemly amount of cheese, because this, if nothing else, is what it means to be a culture reporter. Cheeselandia is a two-day follow-up to last year’s offering of a 70-foot cheese board inside a barn constructed by Wisconsin Cheese. It was arguably one of the most buzzed-about events of SXSW — one that seemed so delightful and random that the question “why” was irrelevant. Now playing: Watch this: Wisconsin Cheese brings some culture to SXSW 1:37 And that’s saying something. In 2018, SXSW brought in about 432,500 people for sessions, showcases, expos and parties covering not just music, film and interactive content, but a wide range of topics like education, environmentalism, gaming and marketing. At an event that has just about everything, it’s a feat standing out. At Cheeselandia, though, there’s a line out the door and down the hall. Attendees can load up plates with cheese and crackers, try fondue and cheese curds, or grab a glass of champagne off a metal holder built around a woman’s dress. There are snow cones and a table-top Ferris wheel with… [Read full story]